Comments

Great performance from Luis Nery!
Nery is one of the most talented offensive fighters in the world in my opinion, he is one of those fighters who really enjoys having a good fight, mentally, in a really good place in all his fights, not even fazed when he's fighting a champion in his back yard. This was a statement from Nery, Villanueva is a really good fighter, he'd only ever lost to McJoe Arroyo, Zolani Tete, and got stopped by neither one, so for Nery to stop him in 6 rounds was very impressive, especially beating a guy who lasted all 12 rounds against likely bantamweight top dog, Zolani Tete, stopping him with such ferocity, and getting a win like this at still closer to 20 than 30, it is hard to question his ability at world level. Nery can't have had the best of amateur careers, certainly not the longest, but I don't imagine many Mexican greats, both current and historic did either, great success in the unpaid ranks isn't always the way to get to the top, I think Nery is 25-0, so he isn't an inexperienced pro.

I do think Nery is a fighter who could land himself in big trouble late in his career, I think he will be one of those fighters who struggles to retire, and in 10 years time, he might take a beating or two from rising prospects who are where he is now. Nery does get hit a lot in fights, his defence hasn't really been tested, but based on this fight, I wasn't impressed in that regard, and in round 4, that is what happens when a fighter gets complacent, it took him a very short period of time to get back to dominance, in those brief seconds when he got caught, he got dropped clean, I think the impact damaged his nose, he wasn't seriously hurt, but he took a shot or two more than he was prepared to take, and the sheer force, and weight of the shot combined with the fact that Nery walked into the shot, just knocked him back. Had Villanueva been a bigger puncher, maybe more durable, defensively stronger (having taken less early punches), Nery could have learned a harsh lesson there, about getting complacent. It is hard to criticise Nery too much, because some fighters are very successful, taking shots, enduring that as the catch, whilst being more offensively successful themselves, and in terms of power, accuracy, variety, method, it is hard to be anything but impressed.